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Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Hon'ble Sri K Rosaiah, underlined the need for a developing country like India to grow in a sustainable manner, and assured that the Government is fully committed to creating an atmosphere of vibrant growth in a sustainable fashion.

Delivering the inaugural address at the 7th edition of Green Building Congress 2009 - an international conference & exhibition on Green Buildings here on Thursday, the Chief Minister noted that environment has always been a top priority for the Government of Andhra Pradesh, and highlighted several initiatives taken by it in the recent past in this regard.

Among them, he said, are the clean and green programme for making every habitation and municipal ward "clean and green," offering 25 per cent subsidy to new companies that promote and adopt environment-friendly technologies, and according incentives for new buildings that adopt green concepts such as installing solar water heating, and efficient lighting systems.

The three-day Green Building Congress 2009 is being organised by CII Godrej GBC.

Under-scoring the fact that Hyderabad has many first's to its credit in the field of green buildings, Sri K Rosaiah noted that the CII-Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre in the city is the first Platinum-rated green building in the country, and Avani Residence is the first Platinum rated IGBC Green Home Project in the country.

Similarly, Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad is the first airport in the country to have adopted green concepts, and Hyderabad Institute of Technology and Management is the first educational institution in the country to have been rated green.

"Besides, the State has about 50 Green building projects with green building foot-prints of about three million sq feet," said the Chief Minister.

Sri Rosaiah complimented CII-Sohrabji Green Business Centre in Hyderabad for catalyzing 410 green buildings with a foot-print of 275 million sq feet covering residences, commercial offices, hospitals, airports, malls, IT parks, and factory buildings, and observed: "All these initiatives are in the right directions, and my Government will fully support such measures."

He later distributed Plaques to 19 certified green building projects in India. Among the projects are Turbo Energy, India's greenest building award, and Avani Residence, India's first Platinum rated IGBC-Green Home Project.

The Hon'ble Chief Minister also presented Award to Lakshmipat Singhania Academy, Kolkata, the winner of the Green -I Contest. The event was supported by Carrier. Further he also presented Award to SPA, Delhi, the winner of IGBC Architectural Design Competition, supported by Blue Star.

Addressing the delegates, Mr Jamshyd N Godrej, Chairman, CII-Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre, highlighted the CII's initiative titled Mission on Sustainable Growth, and said the overall objective of this mission is to promote and champion "ecologically sustainable growth in Indian industry "without compromising on high and accelerated growth."

As part of the Mission on Sustainable Growth, Mr Godrej said, a code titled "CII-Code for Ecologically Sustainable Business Growth," has been developed in consultation with the industry leaders, with an aim to seek voluntary commitments from corporate to reduce their resource intensity and emissions, discharge and waste generation by 2 to 6 per cent every year.

Mr Godrej noted that Green Building movement is an extension of the mission on sustainable growth, and called on more industry leaders to join in the Mission of Sustainable Growth for ensuring sustainable growth of the country. He also requested the Government of Andhra Pradesh to adopt IGBC green guidelines for various buildings, offer rebate in property taxes for rated green buildings, insist on new and proposed government buildings to be built as green buildings, and insist on developing satellite towns as Green Cities.

In his Theme Address, Dr Prem C Jain, Chairman, Indian Green Building Council, said there is a clear shift towards green practices in the construction development in the country, and expressed confidence that with this shift, Indian will emerge one of the world leaders in green buildings and technologies.

He, however, warned that there are several challenges impeding the growth of Green buildings such as lack of awareness on the Green concepts, high incremental costs and non-availability of raw materials. Dr Jain hoped that the Green Building Congress 2009 would turn out be another milestone in advancing the green building movement in the country.